New construction of office buildings, homes and other structures typically begins with clearing the land upon which the new structure is to be built. This land clearing often results in the accumulation of large piles of trees, tree stumps, branches and other foliage which must be disposed of before construction can begin. Traditionally, the piles of brush have been ignited so as to create a large fire in order to destroy the pile of debris. The traditional method many times requires the digging of extensive trenches in order to control the blaze created by the fire. Also, any newly cut trees or branches should be allowed to dry for several days or weeks, depending on the weather, in order to insure their suitability for burning. However, this is not always possible and an effort must be made to burn the green debris. With either green or dry debris, portions of the debris often remain unburned and present difficulties to those preparing to build on the cleared site.
Various flammable fluids and mixtures have been utilized, with little success, to enhance the burning of the debris. Many fluids are too volatile and evaporate or run off into the ground so that the flame enhancing effect is short-lived. Other fluids are simply too expensive to justify their use in land clearing applications. A fluid that is both economical and efficient for this use has yet to be developed.
It is also known to utilize motorized blowers adjacent the burning debris for enhanced combustion. However, these devices are expensive and have not been widely accepted in the construction trade to date.
The apparatus and method of the present invention overcome the shortcomings of traditional brush burning methods by providing an economical apparatus and method for quickly and completely burning piles of land clearing debris.